Rochon soars to second at aerials World Cup in Utah
Olivier Rochon celebrates a second place finish in the FIS World Cup men’s aerials event on Feb. 4, 2016, in Deer Valley, Utah.
Aerialist Olivier Rochon claimed his first FIS World Cup podium in more than three years after finishing second in Deer Valley, Utah on Thursday.
Last weekend, Rochon had been third at the Canadian Aerial Open and Championship behind Olympian Travis Gerrits and Lewis Irving. This week, Rochon was the top Canadian after the qualification rounds, ranked fifth, followed by Irving who also advanced to the final in seventh place. In the final Rochon jumped to a score of 122.13 to finish between Oleksandr Abramenko (121.24) of the Ukraine and Qi Guangpu of China (127.15). Irving finished just off the podium, placing fourth with a score of 115.83.
The overall aerials World Cup champion in 2012, Rochon missed a chance to compete at Sochi 2014 after suffering a knee injury in December 2013 that took him out of competition for a year. His best result since returning had been a fourth place finish in January 2015.
The Canadians will have another shot at a podium finish on Saturday. A second World Cup competition was added in Deer Valley to make up for the Lake Placid cancellation in January.
